Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Ronna McDaniel could already be heading for the exit…
Days after NBC News announced it had hired McDaniel as a new contributor to the network and reports of inner turmoil are already running rampant.
According to The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC president Rashida Jones “has no plans to have McDaniel on the channel,” citing “people familiar” with the controversy.
The Journal reported that there has been “internal backlash” over the hire — adding that “a number of MSNBC anchors and producers have voiced concern about McDaniel's ties to former President Donald Trump and the RNC's role in his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.”
“Morning Joe” Co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in their Monday broadcast sharply criticized the network for hiring McDaniel and called on NBC News to reconsider the decision.
“To be clear, we believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices to provide balance in their election coverage. But it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier,” Brzezinski said.
“And we hope NBC will reconsider its decision. It goes without saying that she will not be a guest on ‘Morning Joe' in her capacity as a paid contributor,” Brzezinski added.
On Friday, Carrie Budoff Brown, who leads political coverage at NBC, wrote in a memo shared with The New York Times, “It couldn't be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna's on the team.”
Chuck Todd, the former host of “Meet the Press,” appeared on the Sunday morning show and blasted his network over the decision.
“There's a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination,” he said.
“We learned about the hiring when we read about it in the press on Friday,” Scarborough said.
“We weren't asked our opinion of the hiring, but if we were, we would have strongly objected to it for several reasons, including, but not limited to, as lawyers might say, Ms. McDaniels's role in Donald Trump's fake electoral scheme, and her pressuring election officials to not certify election results while Donald Trump was on the phone,” he continued.
During McDaniel's first appearance on “Meet the Press,” she criticized Trump's plan to release everyone convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6th, 2021 Capitol riot and said she refused to break with Trump before out of fear. (RELATED: Ronna McDaniel Has Trainwreck First Interview As NBC News Contributor)
“If you attacked our Capitol … and you've been convicted, then that should stay,” McDaniel said when asked about Trump's promise.
“When you're the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team,” she said. “Right now, I get to be a little bit more myself. This is what I believe.”
This article originally appeared on Great America News Desk. Republished with permission.
READ NEXT: Biden's Crazy New ‘Digital Discrimination' Rule Claims Internet Access Is Racist
